Deadly “black” places in Russia have been known for a very long time. In such areas, houses were usually not mortgaged, people were afraid to settle there, and paths and roads were not built, preferring to spend more money just to avoid these dangerous places.
Legend has it that during the construction of the future city of St. Petersburg, people hung pieces of raw meat from trees in the clearings where roads and streets were planned. And where the meat later rotted, they began building their houses.
There are countless such diverse and disastrous places across our vast country. Some of them are of interest to scientists and researchers trying to explain their nature.
One of the most famous and mysterious haunted places is Death Valley, located in Kamchatka. Its existence has been known since the 1930s, when hunters who had lost their dogs stumbled upon the riverbank not only the corpses of their dogs but also numerous decomposed carcasses of animals and birds. All of them lay in a stretch two kilometers long and about a hundred meters wide. Although the hunters fled this “cemetery” in fear, their health rapidly deteriorated afterward. Rumors of this ominous place spread throughout the country, and researchers began flocking to the area. However, in most cases, their fates ended tragically. Many of them died, never having been able to unravel the mystery of Death Valley.
Scientists believe that all humans and animals die from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. However, how then can we explain the fact that fairly large bears died after feasting on the meat of dead animals? Moreover, people, feeling ill, were able to quickly flee this dangerous area rather than die. It's inexplicable…
An equally mysterious place is the Mountain of the Dead, located in the northern Urals, on the border of the Komi Republic and the Sverdlovsk region. People have died here repeatedly under rather mysterious circumstances. The first victims of this strange place were nine tourists: although some died of hypothermia, the bodies of the others were in terrible condition: they had broken ribs, fractured heads, and numerous hemorrhages. One woman had even had her tongue torn out. However, all of this was accompanied by a very strange circumstance: none of them had a single abrasion or bruise on their bodies, and their skin was an inexplicably reddish color. Some of their clothing had significant radiation levels. All of them were completely gray, and their faces were frozen in horror.
The next ten years were marked by three plane crashes over the site, as well as the deaths of tourist groups, which numbered exactly nine people.
They say that nine Mansi were once brutally killed at this place.
The cape, named Mogilny, where the Mountain of the Dead is located, is a small area of just three hundred square meters. Upon closer inspection, one immediately notices that plants grow much faster there than in the surrounding areas. However, if a person ventures onto this mountain, strange things immediately begin to happen: blood pressure rises, the pulse and heart rate quicken, and a sweaty depression sets in, accompanied by unpleasant sensations. Animals avoid this area a mile away, so even birdsong is inaudible. The only inhabitants of this forbidding place are crucian carp. However, upon closer inspection, one sees that they are true mutants with facial defects.
There are at least a dozen people who claim that UFOs often hover over this mountain. However, recently, a more realistic theory has come to the fore: at a depth of ten meters beneath Cape Mogilny, there are iron ore deposits, and it is here that the positive and negative magnetic fields converge.
There is another explanation: supposedly, burial sites of the Kulai culture are located here, and since they are considered ancient sanctuaries, then, according to scientists, it is they who create a negative energy field around themselves, which has an abnormal effect on a person.
Another deadly place, where it's not recommended for people to go unnecessarily, is located in the Volgograd region. This steppe area appears unremarkable, but locals call it the Devil's Lair. They consider it cursed and dangerous for both people and animals. People and livestock periodically disappear here, engines stall, airplane instruments malfunction, or hurricane-force winds strike. In the 1990s, two shepherds wandered into the Devil's Lair, and when one of them lay down to rest, the sheep became very restless. The second shepherd approached the flock to calm them down, but upon his return, he discovered… the body of his companion, completely burned by a fire that had sprung from nowhere. The ambulance and rescuers who arrived were astonished: the man's clothing was completely intact, and an autopsy revealed that he had burned from the inside out, as his internal organs had suffered more damage than his outer skin. There are about a dozen more stories that testify to the instantaneous spontaneous combustion of people at this place.
The strange occurrences at this location don't end there. This place is also known as the Slope of Wild Ball Lightning, which appears spontaneously, even in clear, sunny weather, and follows a single path, burning every tree in its path. According to eyewitnesses, these lightning bolts avoid people, and if they do strike them, they pass right through them without causing any harm. But the most intriguing thing is that in this anomalous place, the ball lightning strikes trees not from the air, but from underground. Scientists have discovered that they fly through underground tunnels located at a shallow depth. Old-timers say these tunnels are about twenty meters deep and have completely smooth walls.
All attempts to explore these strange tunnels encounter unknown obstacles, as if deliberately set up by someone. People suddenly begin to panic and experience an inexplicable terror.
According to locals, this place, known as the Devil's Lair, has long been haunted by unknown flying objects. Conversations about them can be heard literally at every tea party in the nearby village, and in 1993, the remains of a huge saucer were discovered here.
Another haunted place, a kind of anomalous zone, is located on the banks of the Volga River near Zhigulevsk. While there, you can see a wondrous mirage: a fabulously beautiful palace with delicate towers appears in the sky, right out of the water. Moreover, the palace is so clearly visible and looks so magical that you can't immediately tell which is the mirage and which is reality. It's well known that mirages are a figment of the imagination. But whose imagination is playing out here? Or is it something else entirely, something we're unaware of?
Legend has it that this palace belongs to a princess whom Ataman Stenka Razin drowned in the Volga, and that the palace's underground chambers contain the Ataman's own treasures. According to local residents, this anomalous tale has a basis in fact: supposedly, underground tunnels exist in the neighboring village of Malaya Ryazan, where Razin's untold riches are stored, creating this very mirage.
Surely many of us know of places in our region where very strange phenomena occur. And although at first glance these places seem quite ordinary, from time to time very strange phenomena occur there, for example, traffic accidents. And then doubts creep in, and strange assumptions begin. Accidents can occur in places where the road is perfectly straight and clearly visible, where there are no traffic lights and the asphalt is perfectly paved. Yet accidents happen all the time. Sometimes they occur with incomprehensible frequency. Why? You can ask this question as much as you like. But an explanation is impossible to find. Is it mysticism, or is there a rational, scientific explanation for everything?
It seems there's still a mystical element to this. According to one theory, there's a certain element of evil at work, a diabolical obsession that possesses people and leads to numerous tragedies.
The road connecting Lyubertsy with the Ryazan region near the village of Lytkarino has long been known as the “Road of Death.” It has a high accident rate, which is associated with otherworldly forces, spirits, and mysticism.
The Moscow Region Governor himself decided to dispel the myth of danger on this road: he laid new asphalt, installed numerous speed bumps, thoroughly lit the road at night, and placed signs warning of the dangerous section of road. However, accidents still happen.
Drivers report seeing ghosts on the road that interfere with driving, including small silhouettes in pointed hoods or a girl in a wedding dress. Drivers often report seeing their watches stop.
Both scientists and enthusiasts studied the mysterious phenomenon. It was also covered by Central Television.
According to scientists, this location contains a geopathogenic zone caused by a tectonic fault in the Earth's crust. This zone affects people's well-being, putting them into a kind of psychomotor state.
Enthusiasts who decided to explore the “Death Road” themselves tell very strange stories: as soon as they began their hike along the road, many of their blood pressure jumped, and they felt as if they were walking knee-deep in icy water.
Both sides of the road are lined with wreaths and photographs of people who died here. They say a wedding procession once crashed here, and it's the bride's ghost that haunts the road, looking for a groom.
The story is not new: a ghost always comes to the place of its death, each time attempting to recreate the tragedy of its demise. However, the wedding procession accident happened relatively recently, and accidents have happened before.
Another version holds that the road passes through a cemetery for suicides who were previously never given funeral services. So these unrepentant souls wander the road, seeking peace.
Every haunted place is surrounded by rumors, speculation, and explanations from scientists, but what to believe and what not is up to the people. Many are not particularly inclined to trust scientific, rational explanations; they instead believe in mysticism and otherworldly forces.
There are many things in this world, friend Horatio…
